The escalation of disputes to war

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Abstract
While most militarized international disputes do not escalate to war others do. Why is this so? This paper reviews two broad bodies of research that attempt to provide partial answers to this question. First, contextual variables, such as power capabilities, arms races and polarity provide some insight into the conditions under which escalation takes place. Second, research that focuses on the interaction between the adversaries provides a sharper focus on the problem, but necessarily is of more limited generality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problem of cumulation as it relates both to dispute escalation and international relations more generally.

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